Brothers Sentenced to Three Years for Selling Guns Overseas

Two brothers, one a former New York City police officer and the other a federal customs officer, were sentenced on Friday to three years in prison for illegally exporting military-grade weapons to the Philippines for more than four years.

Judge Allyne R. Ross of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, in handing down the sentences, said she wanted to “give the public confidence that the rule of law applies with equal force to law enforcement officials and non-law enforcement officials.”

From January 2009 to September 2013, the two bought and sent to the Philippines a variety of weapons, including assault rifles, AR-15s and semiautomatic weapons designed to penetrate body armor. A license issued by the State Department is required to sell such weapons overseas, and the brothers did not obtain one. They pleaded guilty in June to violating an export law.

In an odd twist, prosecutors said in a court filing that the two men tried unsuccessfully to persuade a third brother, Ariel Maralit, who lives in the Philippines, to come to the United States to face charges in hopes of getting shorter sentences. A news release issued by the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York described Ariel Maralit as a fugitive.

At times, the men relied on their official roles in operating their illegal side business, prosecutors said in court papers. Rex Maralit sought discounts when buying guns based on his status as a police officer, even listing his Police Department shield number on a federal form he had to complete when making the purchases. Wilfredo Maralit, who was assigned to Los Angeles International Airport, told a weapons distributor he was ordering supplies for the border protection agency when he bought ammunition magazines.

The defendants said their lives had collapsed since they were arrested in 2013.

“I’ve lost all I have worked for,” Wilfredo Maralit said at his sentencing. His lawyer said he would lose his job with Customs and Border Protection once the sentence has been imposed.

Rex Maralit, who was fired from the Police Department after he entered his guilty plea, said at his sentencing that he had become involved in the gun trade to make extra money for his family and that he had hoped to one day make the business legitimate. “I was blind to allow myself to believe that I was merely avoiding red tape,” he said. “I ruined my dignity, honor and good reputation.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Brothers Sentenced to Prison for Selling Guns Overseas. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe